I grew up in Brooklyn. Very close to Brighton Beach. The Boardwalk, Coney Island. Places I fondly remember. The Cyclone roller coaster. The Parachute Jump, Ferris Wheel. The NY Aquarium. Gone, broken or destroyed. Hard to believe. I lived in Northern, NJ for 21 years. The horror of the devastation. Endless suffering with the cold and no power. This kind of horror doesn’t happen here. Creating a city of rubble. That happens in places like Haiti, India, Africa, and Japan. But this is the new normal. We can no longer feel protected form the wrath of nature. Coastal cities will no longer be safe, idyllic havens. Building multi-millon dollar homes at the beach may no longer be money well spent. Because the predictions are that Sandy or Katrina are the type of storms spawned by climate change and we all may need Noah to build another ark.
Speaking of the Bible, I am sick and tired of this election forcing religious beliefs down our throats. This country was supposed to be about religious freedom, about separation of church and state. Whether you are pro-life or pro-choice, it should be a personal decision. Whether a woman wants to have recreational sex and not procreate should be a personal choice. How dare the GOP come into our bedrooms. The GOP is for small government but now stands for big church. This is war against women is just like the Taliban and I scratch my head at ANY woman would vote for that. Our country stands for freedom. Freedom of choice as to how to live our lives, not complying with religious dogma. Enough. If you make abortion illegal again, then women will do what they did for centuries, abort unwanted pregnancies in back alleys and put women at risk. Women will do that and die and there is always someone who will perform the abortion for money. Just like finding pot to smoke, just like finding booze in prohibition. I say if women can’t have access to cheap or free birth control, than doctors can no longer prescribe Viagra. Because an old men should not be having sex for fun and it has been discovered that autism might be caused by old men having children. I wish the crazy element of the Republican party would just stay in their churches and leave the rest of us sane people alone.
So what am I grateful for? The right to speak my mind. To observe the magical human spirit that vows to rebuild and go on. And that I have been given this gift of life, to feel, to love, to see beauty, to hear the music of voices, symphonies, and the sounds of nature. How lucky am I to understand that these extreme voices will eventually soften and become more moderate. I know that with every fiber of my being. Just a little impatient.
